Double world and Olympic champion is practising for his 26.2 mile debut with a
meticulous eye for detail and studying refuellling and his rivals' tactics

Mo Farah says he is preparing for his debut in the Virgin Money London Marathon with the same thoroughness with which David Beckham used to practise his free-kicks to ensure there are no hidden surprises when he goes to the start-line on April 13.

The double world and Olympic champion admits he faces a steep learning curve as he switches from the track to the roads but is leaving no stone unturned in his build-up, with repetitive training drills to get his pacing right, practice sessions on the art of taking drinks without slowing down and detailed analysis of previous races.

“The aim is to practise what you do so when you’re doing it in a race it feels comfortable and it’s not a shock,” he said. “It’s like David Beckham. When he’s taking free-kicks he’s practised that in training many times so he knows when he’s going to put it in the goal. That’s what he has to do, and it’s the same for me.”

Farah is two weeks into a three-month training camp at an altitude of 2,400 metres in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley where he is pounding out 130 miles a week to build up his strength before taking on some of the world’s greatest marathon runners on the capital’s streets.

Getting accustomed to the pace at which he will need to run is crucial, and he is working on a new, less bouncy running style to help conserve energy.

There is the additional problem of taking on drinks along the marathon route – not just the physical skill of grabbing a bottle at speed but working with his support staff to make sure each drink has the right mixture of carbohydrates, protein and salts based on his weight and the amount of energy he expends.

“It’s not easy man,” Farah said. “Because you’re going at that speed, you’ve got to have the right fuel. You have to think whether it’s enough for your body and then you have to think about the next drink, and that next drink involves other stuff in terms of carbs and protein. It’s not just about getting water.”

Farah will also be armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of previous split times and elevation changes for every mile of the London race. With a few clicks of his smartphone he is able to call up detailed statistics on the men’s elite races for the past five years. “I’ve got the times, who won, the splits, that sort of stuff You can look at what the split is to see what you need to do.”

He says he has learnt the hard way about the danger of having insufficient knowledge after he was beaten into second place by the little-known Ethiopian Ibrahim Jeilan, in the 10,000 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

Farah admitted afterwards that he had no idea who Jeilan was, let alone what he was capable of in a sprint finish, and said he would have approached the race differently had he done his homework.